Kirstie Alley loses 38 inches since Dancing debut

LOS ANGELES — When Kirstie Alley performs on the “Dancing With the Stars” season finale, she’ll do it in a much smaller dress than the one she wore on the season premiere.

The costume Alley wore for her “Dancing” debut had to be taken in 38 inches for her to wear it again Tuesday for the show’s closing episode. Alley will reprise her opening-night dance, the cha-cha, in her original costume.

The 60-year-old actress has been noticeably shrinking week after week, but she was coy when asked after performing in a skin-tight bodysuit Monday how much weight she has lost during her two and a half months on the show.

“There will be some reveal of that at some point, but I really didn’t care,” she said. “As long as I kept changing and changing and changing, I really didn’t care. It was like, keep whittling, whittling, whittling. And the other thing that’s really more significant to me — I mean, I love the whittling, I like being skinny — I’m really strong and really agile and it gave me a new life.”

Alley’s costumes have gotten progressively smaller and skimpier as she has continued on the show.

The one-time “Fat Actress” wowed in a body-hugging catsuit during her freestyle dance Monday. After the performance, Judge Carrie Ann Inaba told Alley that she has become “the new poster child for life as it should be lived at 60 years old.”

A new “Dancing” champ will be named Tuesday. Alley is up against actress Chelsea Kane and football star Hines Ward.